Biden splurge nears Trump’s
● US President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden stepped up campaign spending in July, according to disclosures filed this week with the Federal Election Commission.
Biden, who accepted the Democratic nomination on Thursday to challenge
Trump in the November 3 election, spent nearly $60m (R1.04bn), while the president’s re-election campaign disbursed nearly $65m.
The disclosures show how close the money race has become between Trump and the former US vice-president.
Trump, who started fundraising for his reelection campaign only months after taking office in 2017, had cash holdings about twice those of Biden in April when Biden became his party’s de facto nominee.
By July, Trump’s campaign had about $121m to Biden’s nearly $99m.
Statements by each campaign this month suggested their cash piles were roughly equivalent when including the resources of their political parties and associated political committees.
Biden plans to increase advertising spending in coming months, and the faceoff could become the most expensive US election in history.
In July, Biden spent more than $46m on television and other media ads, Thursday’s disclosure showed, for overall spending that was more than 60% above the level of June.
Trump’s campaign spent more than $44m on ads in July.